Daring Cooks' challenge May: Stacked green chile and chicken enchiladas

I was really excited about this month's challenge. I haven't tried many Mexican dishes, but so far I've always loved what I've tried. I love mole and I love tacos and I love fajitas and I love quesadillas... now I would taste enchiladas for the first time. Wonderful! I was only afraid that this dish would be too hot for me...

MU7WVWJKBEYQ


Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

Fine, so the challenge involved making an enchilada sauce consisting mainly of roasted green chiles and tomatillos, grilling some chicken breasts and making some corn tortillas (I already knew about the tortilla part...). The challenge turned out fantastic despite all the mishaps... First, after learning about the challenge, I located an online source of tomatillos in Spain, because I hadn't even seen them in my life. Perfect. Then, when the time arrived for making the enchiladas, I realized I had forgotten to order them, so I had to use green tomatoes and lemon... not the real thing. Shame on me. Second, I searched for green chiles everywhere... but they were nowhere to be found. I used regular green peppers and then add some mildly hot pickled Spanish green guindillas. Third, I wanted to make my own tortillas with my beautiful tortilla press and then I couldn't squeeze into my schedule going down to Madrid to buy the damned tortilla flour... so we had to manage with store-bought tortillas. But still your heroine (that's me) managed to make some delicious enchiladas, my way... here's how.



Stacked green chile & grilled chicken enchiladas
Serves 4

• 750g green peppers (not bell peppers)
• 2 green pickled guindillas
  
• 250g green tomatoes
• Juice of 1 lemon
  
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 liter vegetable stock
• 1 small onion
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Salt to taste
  
• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• Olive oil
• 12 small corn tortillas
• 200g Manchego cheese (the recipe called for cheeses not easily found in Spain and... what the heck, Manchego is perfect)

1. To make the sauce, first roast the peppers on an oven tray, at 180ºC, till the skin is dark. Take them out to a pot and cover them till cool. In my case, I also roasted the tomatoes.
2. When cool, get rid of the skin. Fry the minced onion and garlic in a frying-pan with a couple of tablespoons of oil, till wilted. Here I mixed this with the peeled peppers, the tomatos and the chopped guindillas in a food processor and pureed it.
3. Then add the lemon juice, the vegetable stock and the salt and boil the mixture for 10 minutes.
4. Add the cornstarch dissolved in a little water and continue boiling till the sauce thickens, another 10 minutes.
5. In the meantime, salt and oil the chicken breasts, put them into an oven dish, add a glug or two of white wine and cook them for 20 minutes at 200ºC. When done, cut or shred in little pieces.
6. Shred the cheese and set aside.
   
7. When the sauce and the chicken are both ready, fry the tortillas slightly in 2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil.
   
8. Take a large baking dish enough for 4 tortilla stacks or 4 individual oven plates, like I did. Ladle some sauce on the plate base, then lay the first tortilla. Ladle some more sauce on the tortilla, then some shredded chicken and some shredded cheese. Now lay a second tortilla, ladle some sauce on it, more chicken and more cheese. Top with a third tortilla, more sauce and a generous handful of cheese. Make the other three stacks in a similar fashion.
9. When you have 4 nice stacks, put the baking dish or plates into the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 180ºC until the cheese is melted and browned on top.
10. Take the enchiladas out of the oven, let them rest for 10 minutes and... enjoy!

Thanks Barbara and Bunnee for a very interesting and timely challenge!